genteel (jentel)

[In this form first found in the 17th century, being an E. adaptation of gentile pronounced as in the contemporary F. gentil, m., gentile, f. (the i pron. as E. ee ), gentle, affable, courteous (see gentile, a., 4); another form in imitation of the F. pron. was jantee, janty, now jaunty. From the OF. form of the same word is reg. derived the E. gentle, while gentile, except in the obs. sense 'genteel,' is directly from the L. See gentle, gentile, genty, jaunty.] 1. Polite; well-bred; decorous in manners or behavior; refined: as, genteel company. The colony [New Haven] was under the conduct of as holy, and as prudent, and as genteel persons as most that ever visited these nooks of America. C. Mather, Mag. Chris., i. 6. A genteel man, brother of the Caimacam of Girge, came to see me, whom I had seen at the Aga's. Pococke , Description of the East, I. 123. Isn't he a handsome man? - tell me that. - A genteel man? a pretty figure of a man? Sheridan, The Rivals, iv. 2. 2. Adapted to, suitable for, or characteristic of polite society; free from vulgarity or meanne in appearance, quality, amount, etc.; elegant; becoming; adequate: as, genteel manners; a genteel addre ; genteel comedy; a gen teel income or allowance. [Mercier] soon returned and took a house in Covent garden, painting portraits and pictures of familiar life in a genteel style of his own, and with a little of Watteau. Walpole, Anecdotes of Painting, IV. iii. Whoever supposes that Lady Austen's fortune is precathat it is both Cowper. there was not a rio us is mistaken. I can a ure you genteel and perfectly safe. The crowd was insupportable, and genteel face to be seen. Jane Austen , North anger Abbey, p. 20. 3. Fashionable; stylish; à la mode. 'Tis the most genteel and received wear now, sir. B. Jonson, Cynthia's Revels, i. 1. Do now send a genteel conveyance for them; for, I a ure you, they were most of them used to ride in their own carriages. Sheridan , School for Scandal, iv. 1. He endeavors hard to make rascality genteel , by converting rascals into coxcombs. Whipple , E . and Rev., II. 112. Genteel busine ( the at.). See busine . - The genteel, that which is genteel; the manners of well-bred or fashionable society; "the fashionable." Mr. Adams, delightful as he is, has no pretension to " the genteel." R. L. Stevens on , Some Gentlemen in Fiction. = Syn. Genteel, Polite, well-mannered, polished. Genteel refers to the outward chiefly; polite to the outward as an expre ion of inward refinement and kindne . Gen teel has latterly tended to expre a somewhat fastidious pride of refinement, family position, and the like. Gen teel is often largely negative, meaning free from what is low, vulgar, or connected with the uncultivated cla es; polite is positive and active, meaning that one acts in a certain way. Polite has, however, a pa ive meaning, that of 'polished': as, polite society, polite literature. See polite.